Producer and the like



Sept- 29, 1 3 P. VAN ACKEREN PRODUCER AND THE LIKE 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet '1 Filed Sept. 4

Sept. 29, 1936. P. VAN ACKEREN PRODUCER AND THE LIKE Filed Sept. 4, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Sept. 29, 1936 UNITED STATES PRODUCER AND THE LIKE Paul Van Ackeren, Essen, Germany, assignor, by mesne assignments, to The Koppers Company of Delaware, Pittsburgh, Pa. a corporation of Delaware Application September 4, 1934, Serial No. 742,703 In Germany September 4 1933 1 Claim.

The present invention relates to producers for the gasification of fuel with view to producing combustible gases and the like, especially to such producers which on the bottom of their gasification shaft are provided with a grate capable of being revolved by outside means and being preferably of a polygonal shaped section.

With producers hitherto known of this type, the grate consists essentially'of one undivided piece. This grate serves on the one hand to introduce the air or the mixture of air and steam required for the gasification of the fuel into the shaft of the producer, and on the other hand to crush the lumps of ash formed through the gasification of the fuel, reducing them to small pieces such as may be removed from said shaft preferably by automatically operated means. Thus the grate also acts as a crusher. This action of the grate will, as a rule, cause its projecting corners to wear, which wearing, as experience has proven, will not be of the same intensity on all parts of the grate, but mostly on the corners of the polygonal shaped grate. Here the metal of the grate will become more or less worn, and finally the vertical wall of the grate will be pierced, so as to render the producer unserviceable.

When this condition has taken place, the grates of the usual type made in one piece must be replaced. For this purpose it has hitherto been necessary to take off the whole upper part of the gasifying shaft, in order to provide an opening through which the unserviceable grate might be removed bodily and a new grate lowered and placed into the lower part of the shaft.

The purpose of my present invention is to provide, for producers with revolving grates, such improvements as will allow individual parts of the grate to be replaced, without it being necessary to remove the top part of the producer for this purpose.

According to my present invention, this aim is reached essentially by providing a grate subdivided into a plurality of interchangeable sector shaped elements each covering the space between two subsequent corners of the polygon shaped grate and jointly forming a grate that will operate as an undivided unit- The grate according to my invention presents in addition an opening giving access to its lower parts, which opening during the operation of the producer will be closed by a lid forming part of the conical hood of the grate.

Other aims of my present invention will become evident from the following description, in which I have explained in detail the substance of my invention.

The accompanying drawings show, by way of example, a practical application of my invention to a producer of'the above type.

Fig. l is a vertical section through the lower part of the producer and its grate.

Fig. 2 is a section according to the line IIII in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 shows, to an enlarged scale, a vertical section throughthe producer grate, according to the line IIIIII in Fig. l. v

Fig. 4 is a longitudinal section according to the line IV-IV in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a bottom view of the part of the producer shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 shows, to an enlarged scale, a vertical section through a sector shaped element of the grate.

With the producer shown in the drawings, the fuel to be gasified is introduced in the doublewalled shaft I the upper part of which is provided with a fuel charging device and with a gas ofitake pipe-for simplicity not shown in the drawings. The space 2 left between the double walls of the shaft, serves in the usual Way as a water-jacket for cooling. the inner wall of the shaft, in order to prevent its being burnt through.

The producershaft is provided with a lower extension 3 which is open at its lower end and which dips into the ash-pan 4 so as to form a water seal. The said ash-pan is carried by means of a circular rail 5 on a plurality of rollers 6 arranged in a circle, sothat the ash-pan and the grate carried by same may be rotated round a vertical axis. The bottom of the ash-pan is fitted at its circumference, with a toothed rim 1 in which engages a worm 8. This Worm is connected by appropriate means to a motor, which thus may impart a slow rotary motion to the ashpan and the grate.

The grate is fixed upon the bottom of the ashpan in the middle of the latter. It consists of the lower side Wall 9 and the hood l0. The side wall is of polygonal form and is composed of a plurality of inwardly curved elements fixed together by means of bolts II. In a similar way, the hood is composed of several sector shaped grate sections, which are connected With each other by means of bolts IE to form a hood. Each section 9 of the side is fixed to one of the sector shaped sections (13) of the hood. These sections l3 have their outer edges curved inwardly, so as to correspond with the curved elements of the side wall, and in addition have their top faces curved downwardly, so as to give to the top face of the hood a wave like shape. In the cavities thus formed, the hood presents steps M, in which slit shaped openings !5 are provided. Through these slits air or a mixture of air and steam may be blown from below the grate, into the shaft l6.

The hood I U as a whole is of a cone shape, as may be seen in Fig. 1. In the middle of said hood, the sector shaped grate sections of which it is composed, leave an aperture, which may be closed by a removable lid IT. This lid presents slits [8 similar to the slits 15 in the individual sections 13 of the hood, which slits likewise serve for the introduction of air and steam. For fixing the lid to the hood, there is provided a locking bar 19, the arms of which are bent at their ends to engage, when in locking position, under a projecting edge 2| of two of said sections I3 which are diametrically opposite each other. The locking bar I9 is fixed to a turnable head 23, which likewise presents openings for the introduction of air and steam into the shaft.

For removing the lid [1 in order to give access to the inside of the grate, the head 23 is turned until the locking bar l9 arrives in the position indicated by the dotted lines 25 in Fig. 5. In this position the ends 20 of the locking bar will disengage the projecting edges 2 I, thus allowing the rotary head and the lid H to be removed.

As may be seen in Fig. 2, the side wall 9 and the hood IE! are subdivided in such a way, that the lines separating the various parts of both the wall and the hood, pass through the polygon corners of the grate. These corners, when the grate is revolved through the ash-pan turning, will act in the way of a crusher reducing the larger lumps of ash to such small grains, that the ash may be removed from under the edge 26 of the dip rim 3 into the outer part of the ash-pan 4, which part is accessible from above.

When the producer is operated, especially th polygon corners of the grate will be subject to wear and tear, which as a rule does not occur to the same extent at the same time on all the corners. The peculiar subdivision of the grate according to the present invention, makes it possible to replace only those elements of the grate, that may have become unserviceable. At the same time, the relative small size of the individual parts of the grate permits of their replacement by pass.- ing them through the usual fuel charging hole. Thus it is no longer necessary to remove the whole top part of the producer, in order to repair the grate.

Below the grate, there is provided in the bottom of the ash-pan 4 an aperture, to which is fitted a tube 28 open at its lower end. This tube dips into a double-walled tube 29 which is closed at its lower end, so that it may contain water or any other suitable liquid to seal the tube 28 in the doublewalled tube 29. To this latter tube is connected a pipe line, through which air or a mixture of air and steam may be introduced into the space below the grate 9, I B,

' Finally it may be stated that preferably the lid IT! or the grate is provided with projections or the like which, engaging into suitable recesses in the various sector shaped grate sections l3 of the hood, prevent any rotation of these parts with respect to one another. To a similar effect, stops may be provided on the projections 2| of the sector shaped grate sections l3 of the hood, so as to prevent any accidental unlocking of the locking head 23 during the operation of the producer.

In what is said above, I have explained the substance of my invention, on the base of a definite form of construction, without limiting the invention in all its aspects to this form of construction. On the contrary, my invention may be varied at liberty within the scope of the following claim.

What I claim is:

A producer having a revolving grate comprising an upstanding tubular box, which in plan View is of polygon shape, and an upper conical gas diffusion grid removably connected with the tubular box, said upper conical gas diffusion grid being composed of agroup of lower grid sections and an upper lid grid, the group of lower grid sections being disposed in an annular series of separate sections each of which extends from one polygonal corner to the next and together forming an annular conical hood having polygonal corners with a central access manhole in the center of the hood, means accessible from beneath the hood for removably securing each two adjacent grid sections to each other at the polygonal corners of the hood, the upper lid grid conforming to the configuration of and being removably mounted on the lower group of grid sections to close the manhole, a turntable rotatably fitted on the lid grid to ,be turned from above the grate, a locking bar fixed to said head and extending below the same so that the ends of the locking bar upon turning of the head may engage and disengage locking surfaces on the group of lower grid sections for securing and removal of the upper lid grid relative to the manhole.

PAUL VAN ACKEREN. 

